Happy Birthday to You – Free Resources for Teachers!

Today is a great day – a day that will no doubt go down in history. Not only is it the one-year birthday of our Teachers Blog, but this post also marks our 100th post to the Teachers Blog. (If you think we didn’t plan that, you’re crazy.)

Stuart and I weren’t sure what would come of this blog when we started it. We really enjoy writing it, and based on our increasing readership statistics and the comments and emails we receive, some of you out there seem to enjoy reading it.

As a reward for those of you who have joined us on this blogging journey, and as an incentive for you to stay with us (and bring your colleagues along with you), we have a special birthday present for you, our dear readers.

Actually, we have A MONTH of birthday presents for you. That’s right, for the rest of September, Stuart and I will be giving away free resources for teachers reading the Teachers Blog. Much like the free download of AutoCollage we provided last spring, these giveaways are not available anywhere else, to any other teachers in any other country.

We start this month of giving with a piece of Microsoft software that we’ve blogged about before. It’s something created by the geniuses at Microsoft Research and that we feel has a great many potential applications in education. It is usually available only for a fee, after a trial download period expires. Now, however, you can download it FOR FREE for use in education from the UK Innovative Teachers Network.

Your first birthday present for the month of September is….

(Drumroll, please…)

That’s right, it’s Microsoft Research Songsmith!

Songsmith is the fantastic software that lets you (or your students, preferably), sing into a PC and adds a background track of your choosing to create your own song. The songs are produced as .MP3 files, and can be used in any number of ways in your teaching or in student projects, revision materials, presentations, and so forth. We love Songsmith and were thrilled when the nice folks at Microsoft Research agreed that we could give it to you for free. (For more ideas and information on how to use Songsmith, check out Stuart’s previous blog post.)

To download your free copy of Songsmith, go to the UK Innovative Teachers Network. (You’ll need to register and log in with a free username and password if you don’t have one already.) You’ll see an announcement about Songsmith on the home page and a link for further information and download instructions.

We’d like to thank you for reading our blog during its first year, and we hope you stay with us for this next year – who knows what it might bring?!

To sign off, I’ll leave you with this lovely song, produced in Songsmith, of course, by our very own Innovative Teachers. Enjoy a big piece of cake for us, and stay tuned for your next birthday gift, to be delivered in one of our upcoming posts this month.